{"id":170025,"date":"2026-03-09T19:58:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/?p=170025"},"modified":"2026-03-16T19:25:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T00:25:23","slug":"a-brief-history-of-disappearing-hardtops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/a-brief-history-of-disappearing-hardtops\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brief History of Disappearing Hardtops"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div id=\"attachment_70015\" style=\"width: 790px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/02-36-Peugeot-402-\u00c9clipse.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70015\" src=\"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/02-36-Peugeot-402-\u00c9clipse.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"02--&#039;36-Peugeot-402-\u00c9clipse\" width=\"780\" height=\"582\" class=\"size-full wp-image-70015\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-70015\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The French make Peugeot pioneered the retractable hardtop in the early 1930 ties by selling \u00c9clipse bodies, made by  coachbuilder Marcel Pourtout, on their 301 and 601 chassis. The concept of the Peugeot 402 \u00c9clipse was also based on Georges Paulin\u2019s patent. But this model, introduced in October 1935, was built in Peugeot\u2019s own factory. Between 1936 and 1940 some 580 units were produced. <\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p>From the VeloceToday archives, March, 2015 <\/p>\n<p><em>Three important Frenchman who had a tremendous influence on automobile design: Georges Paulin, Marcel Pourtout and Emile Darl\u2019mat, the three Musketeers.  Much of their combined work evolved around the development of the disappearing hardtop as conceived by Georges Paulin. To give us a further insight into how clever kinematics conquered the auto industry, Gijsbert-Paul sent us this history. <\/em> <\/p>\n<p><strong>By Gijsbert-Paul Berk<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the previous decades nearly all the major car manufacturers have introduced retractable hardtops in their popular or premium convertible models.<\/p>\n<p>Opel had them on the Tigra TwinTop, Ford on their Fiesta and Focus models, Renault provided a glass paneled \u2018see through\u2019 hard top on the Megane CC, Volvo on the C 70 and BMW on the type 4 cabriolet. There even exist Ferrari California and Ferrari 458 Italia Spider versions with a retractable top. <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro_content_message\">This content is for Premium Subscriber members only.<br \/><a href=\"\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fvelocetoday.com%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F170025\">Login<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/subscription-account\/subscription-checkout\/?level=1\">Subscribe<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the VeloceToday archives, March, 2015 Three important Frenchman who had a tremendous influence on automobile design: Georges Paulin, Marcel Pourtout and Emile Darl\u2019mat, the three Musketeers. Much of their combined work evolved around the development of the disappearing hardtop as conceived by Georges Paulin. To give us a further insight into how clever kinematics... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro_content_message\">This content is for Premium Subscriber members only.<br \/><a href=\"\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fvelocetoday.com%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F170025\">Login<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/subscription-account\/subscription-checkout\/?level=1\">Subscribe<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7864],"tags":[5859,5860,5862,5836,5856,5858,5838,5835,5822,5857,3642,5855,5837,658,5861,5863,5834],"class_list":{"0":"post-170025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-oddballs","7":"tag-1928-panhard-cabriolet","8":"tag-carrosserie-pourtout","9":"tag-disappearing-hardtop","10":"tag-disappearing-hardtops","11":"tag-emile-darlmat","12":"tag-federation-francaise-de-la-carrosseri","13":"tag-ferrari-hardtops","14":"tag-ford-skyliner","15":"tag-french-coachbuilders","16":"tag-georges-paulin","17":"tag-gijsbert-paul-berk","18":"tag-marcel-pourtout","19":"tag-mercedes-hardtops","20":"tag-peugeot","21":"tag-peugeot-301-eclipse","22":"tag-retractable-hardtop","23":"tag-retractable-hardtops","24":"pmpro-level-required","25":"pmpro-level-1","26":"pmpro-no-access","27":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170025"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172571,"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170025\/revisions\/172571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}